"Can we make the gallery multi-functional at night?
On movie nights or nights where there is a quiet act on stage it would be nice if there were candlelit tables and chairs elsewhere so that people can sit down, eat and chat if they want to without disturbing folk in the main room.
The people sitting in the gallery would themselves be on display and I think it would be very cool and inviting for people walking past.
The gallery is often used for random happenings anyway, sometimes wonderful and sometimes not.
I thought about the Gold Room, but it needs to be something really special in its own right."

sayeth he, and i answer

"i think it very much depends on what is actually happening in there. if the artist is cool with that then its definately sweet. if its something with loadsa stuff or delecate artwork then maybe not? we should ask the artists putting up there stuff how they feel the space should be used."

I think its something to clarified , the artist should be asked how they feel about the use of the space , the putting out chairs aspect i would not want to see it all the time , but on some nights its would be fine by me . My reservation about the chairs at night is that if people come to see the show then its going to be quite intrusive ,

but at the same time encouraging people to stay within the space via seats and stuff has its benefits too. At times i feel standing looking at art solely is probably not the best way to enjoy it , and that a seat , coffee and some chat whist in the company of art would be more beneficial in that its has relation to life , rather than a rarefied experience in isolation via the white space

but i can also see your point bill about a quite area , of which sometimes i would like myself when theres something on in the cafe , and it happens anyway, its a unique feature of the gallery space .

It would be nice if it was possible to fix a position on the (non-artistic) use of the gallery. I guess the first thing is that the artist needs to say whether they are happy with such use. If not, then that is final. If they are cool with it, then we could put some chairs and a table or two in there.

But it is tricky to convey the wishes of the artist exhibiting to the kitchen people, and if it is changing all the time, people will get confused and do the wrong thing. Could we have a sign which can be put up when the gallery is just for artistic appreciation? That way, kitchen people will know and can point to it while booting the drummers, laptop users and free lunchers out of there. The rest of the time, it is nice to know that there is a place for people to go when the main room is being used for a film or something.

i think i'm against the idea if there is work actually hanging on the walls.

for one, there isn't that much space anyway and the moving of tables, chairs and folks back and fro with frequency will increase the likelyhood of damage to the work.

also, tables chairs and folk will cause an obstruction to the viewing of the work in the gallery. I suppose this is ok if its only at night after a set time we could agree on, say 9, but i would still feel reluctant.

I thought maybe some changes in the setup of the gold room might allow for some more decorative art to be exhibited and there and that space could be turned into a more chilled out dining area.

but on the other hand, the image of some diners observable through the window seems intriuging.

this has always been an interesting debate with good arguments on both sides.

i personally like the official discouragement of people using the space for non-art viewing purposes but leaving that rule unenforced unless people are really being difficult / obstructions / non-artistic themselves. Obviously, the only way to sort this issue is to either 1) provide more space in the forest or 2) invigilate the space full time.

My basic self rule is that if people are in there they should be looking at the art, doing something creative themselves (quietly sketching or playing guitar / work shoping) and they shouldn't be in the way / preventing people from getting in and viewing the work.

The only real problems arise on busy nights after 9pm. In those cases I usually let things be unless folk are really out-of-line in there since who can be bothered if they are not harming anything.

As for chairs / tables: i've often thought that could be good but the forest is so ramshackle, higgly piggly etc that you would want to really only have the nice tables and chairs in there. You'd want the artists to be comfortable with any extra items placed in the gallery and I wouldn't want to just toss a few plastic chairs in there, you know.

since the gallery is curated and cared for and is smaller than the rest of the space, more often it is cleaner, appears more sane and tranquil than the rest of the space. it can be like another world.

I would like to introduce a nighttime curfew on the internet and wi-fi so that performers are given proper respect. Laptoppers in the cafe at night piss me off for lots of reasons, one even had the nerve to ask me to tell a DJ to turn the music down!

I missed the serious bit of the conversation but I'm going to be serious anyway and bill said he'd post a serious reply.
I think people are forgetting what a mess the gallery used to be. Not so much people being in there but all the chairs and tables and old food.

I feel like whilst we don't want to try to be like other galleries too much, if the space is used for other things people don't know how to respond to it or how to respond to the work. They just are confused.

If an artist really wants the space used for other things then fine but i think mostly it just makes it harder for people to engage with the work.
so there.